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The Soul Guardians - aka “Toemarok” (1998)
Dir: Park Kwang-Chun
Based on the novel by Woo-hyouk Lee
A Police raid on a Satanic cult uncovers a shocking sight; mass suicide by
all the cult’s followers.
The only survivor, lying on an altar, is a pregnant woman who is rushed into
hospital. An emergency cesarean saves the baby but the Mother dies.
20 years later a new rash of cult suicides is discovered by the Police and
a Detective Min is put on the case. A case made more sinister than it already
is by the strange death of five survivors of this recent suicide pact.
The mysterious baby has now grown into the pretty, virginal, Seung-hee (Sang
Mi Chu) who works at a garaage and is friends with fellow orphan Yoo-mi. She
has also, in her 2oth year, just had her first period. But there are stranger
things than this about Seung-hee as she keeps having strange, nightmarish visions
and is the focus of a nightmarish hunt.
Three religious ‘Guardians’ (who use a deserted ship as a hideout!)
are also after Seung-hee and try and protect her from the Satanic horrors that
are seeking her out.
These ‘Guardians’ are Father Park-Yoon-Kyu (Sung-kee Ahn), who was
one of the Doctors that delivered Seung-hee and who has turned his back on The
Church to do God’s work.
Chang-June-hu (Hyun-chul Oh) a boy with the power to ‘read’ objects
and cast spells.
And Hyuan-am (Hyeon-jun Shin), a young man with powerful magic and a ‘soul’
knife that he can launch at enemies.
Into all this comes a nosy Reporter, Miss Lee, who is following Detective Min around on the suicide/death case and the three ‘Gaurdians’ have to contend with the Police and the Press, as well as the Satanic powers, as they try to stop the devilish plan to ‘re-birth’ Satan into the World using Seung-hee …..
Well, there is the plot in a rather large nutshell. But sadly the construction of the screenplay (by Park Kwang-Chun, based on the novel by Woo-hyouk Lee) and the basic delivery of the storyline is so needlessly complex, messy and shadowy that the film becomes a genuine strain to watch at times, despite being a big hit in it’s native Korea and garnering various award nominations.
Sequences appear and disappear with no lead up or explanation and characters
randomly pop up at locations at will, resulting in a very disjointed, confused
viewing experience.
A classic example involves a scene on the ship with Chang-June-hu causing a
‘miss-fire’ of Hyuan-am’s ‘soul’ knife, that nearly
hits Seung-hee, and which ends with Hyuan-am catching the blade before instantly
switching scenes to show Chang-June-hu now suddenly in a mausoleum with Father
Park while a sleeping Seung-hee has a nightmare about being chased. Such an
amazingly confusing switch of scenes, from the incident with the knife, that
quite frankly the viewer is left wondering what the hell just happened!
There’s also a very weird sequence where a casually tossed cigarette causes
massive devastation and is set-up in such a way that it becomes unintentionally
funny due to who tossed the cigarette and the general coincidence of it all.
To say it’s all rather eccentric is an understatement!
Even the movie’s basic idea is confusing, not just in what the Satanist’s
plan actually is (involving the deaths, a possessed Military assassin and the
suicides) and how Seung-hee really fits in to it (something very vague and which
changes ¾ of the way through) but also in what the ‘Guardian’s’
plan to stop it all actually is.
Father Park and Hyuan-am can’t even agree on what to do and neither seems
sure if what they are planning is right (and again it all seems to change from
one minute to the next), and even when some late explanations are given (involving
Father Park’s complex past) they are more head scratching than enlightening.
And the weird (if intriguing) mix of heavy Catholic beliefs and more fantastical
Asian magic (with those paper spells so beloved of Hong Kong movies) adds another
very disjointed aspect to the screenplay.
It also has to be said that of the three ‘Guardians’ only Hyuan-am
actually does anything of use and even he’s a walking mass of emotional
angst. Most of the time they just argue with each other and basically mess things
up!
There are some good performances, especially by Sung-kee Ahn (“Musa”),
but the heroes are so emotionally messed up (with a strategy to match) and at
odds with each other that they don’t even seem like heroes.
In fact only the close friendship between Seung-hee and Yoo-mi connects with
the viewer on any kind of emotional level.
It all ends in a ‘super powers’ visual FX confrontation (average at best, and not as enjoyable as some of the classic Hong Kong movie supernatural smack downs it emulates) that’s mostly as confused as the rest of the film, leaves the fates of certain characters hanging and has a rather saccharine solution to the problem that, after all the general complexity and confusion, seems bizarrely simplistic.
But it can’t be all negative surely? Well no, it’s not. There are
some interesting set-pieces and the film looks great (the CGI FX are pretty
good too) and there is obviously much enthusiasm at work behind the camera.
The early night time shot of the shrouded bodies of the cultists, laid out on
the pavement in a downpour, is suitably eerie and macabre and Park Kwang-Chun
uses some interesting visual tricks (like a reflection of Seung-hee in a fallen
hubcap, and a freaky shot of her face under the bath water as she has a gory
vision) and delivers a few interesting action set-ups.
The best action involves the possessed Army guy, with superhuman strength,
who slaughters all in his path to get to Seung-hee while Hyuan-am tries to stop
him. These sequences also show up the various nods to other films as the possessed
soldier sequences owe much to “The Terminator” as well as other ideas
in the story baring a likeness to everything from “Rosemary’s Baby”,
“The Omen”, Wilson Yip’s “2002” and “The End of
Days”.
The less said about a rather silly possessed bulldozer scene the better though.
It’s fun, but why the guy being chased doesn’t simply run around the
side of the slow moving beast is a mystery indeed!
The score is a mixture of classical, operatic (with some big Ennio Morricone/”Once Upon a Time in the West"/“Once Upon a Time in America” influences during the finale) and religious choral cues, with a bit of rather good Industrial Metal thrown in during a night club scene. It all works well in the movie as a whole and enhances some of the set-pieces to great effect.
The movie also delivers the odd bit of gory goodness including actual cesarean footage,
a head stuck on a meat hook, a rather amusing set of sliced off twitching legs
and a rather groovy decapitation (with suitably messy aftermath).
Nudity also makes a welcome appearance during a sex scene between Yoo-mi and
her boyfriend (including an enthusiastically thrusting male backside) in a sequence
that again owes a great deal to “The Terminator”.
But all this parts do not add up to a satisfying whole due to the aforementioned,
brain numbingly disjointed and confused, structure of the movie and the highly
confusing storyline that opens up more questions than it closes to any real
satisfaction.
A nice try, but ultimately the movie misses the mark by a long way. Park Kwang-Chun
can feel free to have another throw though, as there is certainly potential
here.
‘Tai Seng Entertainment’ has delivered a very nice transfer
with only a few digital artefacts present during some of the more frantic, darker
scenes and the 5:1 soundtrack is very impressive with some good surround effects.
The English subtitles are clear with no spelling glitches (and I assume the
plot confusion is not down to bad translation!) and the only real letdown is
the lack of extras; a short interview with the director and some ‘other
title’ trailers being all you get.
